About the Artist
Sarah May (she/hers) is a queer biracial Salvadoreña artist, poet, organizer, facilitator, and bruja. She graduated from the University of Utah with her BFA in Photography & Digital Imaging and her MA in Community Leadership with an Emphasis in Art & Culture from Westminster College. Sarah’s writing and visual work weave frequently together across multiple mediums, connecting to ancestry as a healing ritual and ceremony, and exploring identity as cyclical and evolving.
Sarah has long called Pia Appaa, Great Salt Lake, home. As someone who lives in the in-between of multiple worlds and identities, Great Salt Lake is a sacred place where she cultivated her magic into the artist and storyteller she is today and is a huge component of her work as a place-based artist.
Sarah is an artist and co-founder of Making Waves Artist Collaborative, a community of artists, organizers, and vigilkeepers who cultivate lake-facing culture through participatory art and demonstrative love for Great Salt Lake.
ARTIST RESIDENCIES
2026-2027 Queer Spectra Arts Festival Artist-in-Residence Program, Salt Lake City, Utah
2025 Practitioner & Artist-In-Residence for the Environmental Humanities Grad Program & the Department of Ethnic, Gender & Disability Studies, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah
2022 The Center For Photography At Woodstock Artist-in-Residence Program, Woodstock, New York, USA
2020-2021 Test Site Artist In Residence Program, Bountiful Davis Art Center, Bountiful, Utah, USA
2020 The Ou Gallery Artist in Residence, Cowichan Valley, Canada
2015 Gullkistan, Residency for Creative People, Laugarvatn, Iceland
COMMUNITY WORK
2022-Current Making Waves Artist Collaborative Artist & Co-founder, Salt Lake City, Utah
2021-2022 Plumas Colectiva Latinx Writing & Art Group, Member & Co-Founder, Salt Lake City, Utah
2019-2022 Color Collective Facilitator and Group Coordinator, YWCA, Salt Lake City, Utah
2019-2022 Woke Words: Womxn of Colour Reading & Writing Series Facilitator & Group Coordinator, YWCA, Salt Lake City, Utah
2021-2022 Cyanotype & Circular Weaving Mandala Community Workshops with Craft Lake City, Salt Lake City, Utah
2021 Program Coordinator Community & Inclusion, Utah Arts Festival, Salt Lake City, Utah
2017-2021 Information Booth, Receptionist, Office administration, Tech Support & Theatre Volunteer, Sundance Film Festival, Salt Lake City, Utah
2019 Creative Empowerment Workshop for Latinx Womxn, Consulado de México en Salt Lake City, Utah
2018-2019 Creative Expression Workshop for Womxn & Femmes of Colour, YWCA PDX, Portland, Oregon
2018 & 2020 Photographic Mediums & Digital Photography Art Class, Kimball Art Center, Park City, Utah
SOLO & CURATORIAL WORK
2021 roots of my soul // raíces de mi alma // eni-k la-una, Bountiful Davis Art Center, Bountiful, Utah
2019 Fragments Bountiful Davis Art Center, Bountiful, Utah
2018 Prayers for Roses, Atelier Shop & Studio, Salt Lake City, Utah
2016 Glances, Downtown Artist Collective, Salt Lake City, Utah
2016 Identity Retablos, The Mestizo Institute for Culture and Arts, Salt Lake City, Utah
2016 Emotional Ties, The Urban Arts Gallery, Salt Lake City, Utah
2015 Portraits in Pieces, Mineral and Matter + The Land of Salt, Salt Lake City, Utah
2014 The Identity Project, Salt Lake City, Utah
2013 The Human Experience, Country Club Plaza, Salt Lake City, Utah
USA EXHIBITION HIGHLIGHTS
2024-2026 Alfred Lambourne Arts Program, Friends of Great Salt Lake, Glendale, Utah
2022 The Beat of Our Blood Exhibition, Urban Arts Gallery, Salt Lake City, Utah
2021-2022 The New Beehive Exhibition, Granary Arts, Ephraim, Utah
2021 The New Beehive Exhibition, George S. & Dolores Doré Eccles Gallery at Salt Lake Community College, Salt Lake City, Utah
2021 The Statewide Annual UT ‘21: Craft, Photography, Video & Digital Exhibition, Finch Lane Gallery, Salt Lake City, Utah
2020 Utah Contemporary Museum of Art 35x35 Extension Exhibition, UMOCA, Salt Lake City, Utah
2020 & 2016 Artists of Utah’s 35×35 Exhibition, Finch Lane Gallery, Salt Lake City, Utah
2019 Weber State Hispanic Heritage Month Exhibit, Ogden, Utah
2019 Lost Words Violence Art Showcase in Collaboration with Safe Harbor Crisis Center, Bountiful Davis Art Center, Bountiful, Utah
2018 Latin Arte, Consulado de México en Salt Lake City, Utah
2018 Historias de Ayer y Hoy, Kimball Art Center, Park City, Utah
2017 "Hands up, Don't Shoot!" Exhibition, Mestizo Institute for Culture and Arts, Salt Lake City, Utah
2016 Dia de los Muertos 2016 Celebration, Utah Cultural Celebration Center, West Valley City, Utah
2016 Identity Retablos, Mestizo Institute of Culture and Arts, Salt Lake City, Utah
2016 Photo Independent Art Fair- Photobook Competition, Raleigh Studios, Hollywood, California
2014 Water is Energy for Souls to Move Through, Bellingham, Washington
2013 University of Utah Annual Student Show, Gittins Gallery, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah
2013 Salt Photo Society, Fracture: An Alternative Process, Gittins Gallery, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah
2012 Utah Craft and Photography Statewide Show, Rio Grande Depot, Salt Lake City, Utah
INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITIONS
2016 In the Midnight Gardens at Mnemosyne Shore, Haus Schwarzenberg, Berlin, Germany
2015 Gullkistan Residency Open House, Laugarvatn, Iceland
2015 In the Midnight Gardens, Bishop Gallery, Dresden, Germany
WRITING
2026 “The Once and Future Lake: Stories for Great Salt Lake” Anthology, featuring poems from “Our stories are our bodies”, Torey House Press, Utah
2025 “Our bodies are our stories” Poetry & Cyanotype book, Glass Spider Publishing, Ogden, Utah
2024 “irreplaceable A Collective Praise Poem for Great Salt Lake”, Anthology, Moon in the Rye Press, Utah
2023-2024 Irreplaceable GSL Poetry Readings, “Songs From Along the Watershed”, Antelope Island, Utah
2022-2024 Plumas Colectiva Poetry Performance, Utah Arts Festival, SLC, Utah
2023 Poetry Feature at Plumas Colectiva Baile for Great Salt Lake, Nature Center at Pia Owkai, South Salt Lake, Utah
2023 Featured Poem and Performance of Poem “Desert Rose”, Rape Recovery Center Gala, SLC, Utah
2023 “Vibe Radar” Plumas Colectiva Zine, SLC, Utah
2021-2022 “Starshine & Clay” Woke Words YWCA Utah Publication, SLC, Utah
2022 YW Leader Luncheon Land Acknowledgment, SLC, Utah
2021-2022 Woke Words and Color Collective YWCA Poetry Performance, Utah Arts Festival, SLC, Utah
2028 “Prayers for Roses” Photobook & Narrative, SLC, Utah
2016 “Glances” Photobook & Narrative, SLC, Utah
2016 "Stykki" Photobook & Narrative, Laugarvatn, Iceland